Tuesday, 4 December 2018

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the former President Olusegun Obasanjo met on Tuesday in Abuja, THE PUNCH learned last night.The meeting was also attended by the National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, amongst a few others who were said to have been carefully selected for the meeting.

Sources close to the meeting told our correspondents that the meeting was based on the strategies that would enable Atiku and the PDP emerge winners in the general elections.

It was also gathered that the meeting reviewed the ongoing zonal campaigns of the party, which was said to be a precursor for the state-by-state campaign that would follow.

It was also gathered that the former president used the opportunity of the meeting to settle the rift between Atiku and a former Governor of Adamawa State, Admiral Murtala Nyako (retd.).

Nyako, who is a former Chief of Naval Staff, was a member of the PDP before he defected to the All Progressives Congress.

However, instead of returning to the PDP like Atiku after their disagreements with the national leadership of the ruling party, Nyako and his son, Senator Abdul-Aziz Nyako, joined the African Democratic Congress.

The former president was said to have been worried about the cacophony of voices from the home state of Atiku in particular about his presidential ambition and decided to step in and settle the rifts.

Apart from Nyako, it was also learned that Obasanjo intervened in the alleged misunderstanding between Atiku and his former aide while serving as the Vice President, Dr. Umar Ardo.

A source privy to the meeting said, “It was a family and an elaborate meeting. Baba (Obasanjo) is a fantastic leader. I have never seen such a man who combines energy with intellect and political sagacity.

“He spoke at length to everyone, including the Waziri (Atiku) and others that were there.

“He had successfully settled the rift between Atiku and Nyako and the disagreements between Atiku and Ardo. Now, we have Adamawa to take because all the power brokers are behind us.”

When contacted at the meeting, Secondus declined to give details.

Rather, he said the leadership of the party would always meet to strategise ahead of the election.

Meanwhile, opposition political parties on Tuesday expressed doubt over the readiness of President Muhammadu Buhari to accept the outcome of the 2019 presidential election whichever way it goes.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, had in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria said the 2019 election was not a matter of life-or-death for Buhari,­ because he would be happy to accept the verdict of the electorate.

But the Social Democratic Party and the All Progressives Grand Alliance in separate interviews with our correspondents said there were no proofs so far that Buhari would do as Onyeama promised.

The National Publicity Secretary of the SDP, Mr. Alfa Mohammed, told one of our correspondents that the statement credited to Onyeama was contrary to an earlier statement credited to the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazzau.

Mohammed recalled that Dambazzau had been quoted as saying that the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, would suffer a bloodied nose in the election.

He said the statement by Dambazzau, whose ministry is in charge of internal security, was an indication that the government was ready to unleash security agents on the opposition.